True it will be just more coin.... Mark is good so keep him in mind as an alternative!

 

Nice build

 

any updates?

 

Well, I have been driving her as much as the diesel pump will afford. Unfortunately the winter was VERY hard on a few things, so I need to try to get those fixed. The biggest are the fenders on the bed, the paint has pretty much peeled off of them, primer and all, and they have begun to rust. Currently it's just surface rust, but disconcerning when you spend 3 years making something EXACTLY how you want it.

Still searching for a headliner, found a few, never pulled the trigger. It's really the one piece of the puzzle I need to complete the whole thing.

I love the truck and I don't think I could ever sell it, but its discouraging to see so much time, money, and effort go to waste in a matter of rust. Very sad that the paint is not holding up like I feel it should be, so it may be getting repainted in the next year or so (same colors though).

Enough of the sad... I love the looks like get from people, the thumbs up, the comments. This truck is truly what I wanted it to be. Now I just want it to be finished and reliable. Head studs weren't torqued right, or had loosened, or something, so I lifted the head when I hit 60 psi (I think it was cylinder pressure filling the intake mani or something), so I retorqued the head studs, trans was broke for a while, so I fixed the shift forks, just other small things. Now she runs like a champ.

 

LMC Truck finally came out with a catalog for older Dodges. Just came in the mail a couple days ago. An option. Good luck

 

Well, truck's been doing ok. Haven't been driving her much because I let the plates expire and don't feel like paying to have new tags put on her... kinda a waste of space now but I still love it every time I take her out.

Been playing with the injection pump a little bit and have her running REAL strong. I max about a solid 50# of boost on the HE351VE and she burns pretty close to clean, for a mechanical pump, pulls strong, sounds good, I am happy with where it's set. Had some issues with the head lifting, so fixed those by retorquing the head studs and I have a much more linear boost curve and she's taken everything I can give her.

Through the routine maintenance I noticed when I changed the fuel filter that the fuel pressure gauge was pegged (it's a 15 lb gauge so I figure it was 17-18 lbs maxed out). I thought this was odd and didn't think too much about it, but thought I should get another gauge on there to check it and see what it's really doing so I don't blow the seals out of the IP. Well... too late.

Was driving her around today, took her out for about 60 miles and noticed my oil pressure dropped slightly around the 30 mile mark. I have been fighting the valve cover gaskets and oil leaks (even though they're new) so I thought I dumped some oil. Stopped and looked under the truck and saw a few drops, so I added a quart just to be on the safe side. About 10 miles from home I can't even get the oil pressure over 25, which I thought was odd, but it's awful hot today so I didn't think much of it. Then about 3 miles from home it drops to 10 psi and won't budge so I got it home and pulled the dipstick... it was all diesel.

Drained the pan and got about 10 gallons of diesel and oil out of the truck. Drain plug has chunks of what looks like wire on it, which I imagine is part of the seal. Gonna send the oil out for analysis to see how much bearing material is in it then work on pulling the timing cover off, inspecting the chain, pulling the pump off and checking that out, and maybe pulling the pan to inspect the bearings pending the results of the analysis.

So yeah, she's alive but not so well.

10 gallons of oil/fuel does not work well in a 3 gallons drain pain...



Also, been working on my Mustang a lot lately, so the truck gets a little neglected... Got her mini tubbed and got everything about ready to do the cage. Should be ready to set on the ground in a very short time.

 

Update? What happened to the motor?

 

Update? What happened to the motor?

 

Any updates ?


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Sorry for the late replay. The motor issue ended up being the front IP seal, as suspected. The lift pump was apparently pushing a lot of pressure... good for fueling, bad for the seal.

UNFORTUNATELY, my time as a diesel owner has come to a close. I had to part ways with this in order to buy a house. I am back in school for my doctorate and the truck was not proving reliable, nor was it all that useful (I hauled the Mustang parts in my Yaris more than the truck). As for the Mustang I showed teasers of, that has been parted and crushed as well.

It's a tough decision to get rid of the things you love to make a sacrifice, but I plan to turning the new house's garage into a fab shop and hope to keep creating badass projects.